It’s WFAN on WFAN crime.
“Boomer and Carton” producer Al Dukes roasted hosts Evan Roberts and Tiki Barber and producer Tommy Lugauer of “Evan & Tiki” for ignoring a potential major complication of the just-announced Craig Carton-Suzyn Waldman Yankees radio pairing in August while speaking with Carton on Monday.
Carton will serve as WFAN’s play-by-play announcer for the Yankees’ three-game set against the Rangers from Aug. 9-11 at Yankee Stadium.
“I love Craig doing play-by-play, I love the idea of teaming him with Suzyn Waldman. But how do you put Craig on in an interview Evan Roberts and Tiki Barber and not ask anything about what his relationship with Suzyn Waldman is?” Dukes posted on X. “Ten years of Boomer & Carton and him doing the voice and non-stop, and I had always heard that she couldn’t stand the guy. And now she’s doing play-by-play with him and nobody on that afternoon show thought to ask, ‘Have they spoken yet? Has he apologized? Will he have to apologize?’
“Tommy Lugauer is supposed to be a generational talent that is going to lead us and he didn’t ask a question either or prod Evan to ask a question or Tiki. Nobody asked Craig, ’10 years of “Boomer & Carton,” three years of “Carton & Roberts” doing the Suzyn voices, nobody thought to ask, ‘What’s going on with that? How this came to be?'”
Carton, the controversial host who used to work for WFAN before moving to FS1, has been quite harsh on Waldman throughout his career.
A TikTok clip from @wfanvault showcases Carton ripping Waldman for being emotional after Bernie Williams played “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” and another YouTube clip features Carton doing an impression of Waldman more than a decade ago and discussing the “Suzyn Waldman” alarm clock.
Carton, who was arrested in 2019 for securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit those crimes, ripped Waldman and SNY’s Gary Cohen two years ago for being out of touch.
“They’ve never bought a ticket to a game, Gary and Suzyn,” Carton said, as chronicled by silive.com. “So they have no idea what it might be like, and I don’t like doing it now either, guilty as charged, sitting in seats with regular people.”
Waldman hinted at frustration with Carton in a 2014 interview with Newsday.
“I’ve never met Craig Carton; I wouldn’t know him if he was in my living room,” Waldman told the paper. “I don’t listen to them. I’m not their demographic … Whatever they do, they do. I’ve been here almost 30 years. It is what it is.”
Now, the two will work together, and if Waldman “can’t stand” Carton, as Dukes alleged, it could make for an awkward situation.
Carton told The Athletic he will treat this opportunity with respect.
“I want to be clear about that,” Carton told the outlet. “I’m not going to do something that’s clownish. I got to leave the crazy home run calls to the memory of John (Sterling) and his greatness of all of the years. But I’ll do my best. I’ll make sure that it’s unmistakably me and it’s just awesome.”
WFAN has rotated through different play-by-play voices this year following John Sterling’s retirement in April.
Carton’s WFAN interview surely would have been a great chance for a discussion of how he plans to work alongside someone he has torched, but, as Dukes said, that conversation will have to wait.
“This is like in 1997 if it was announced Howard Stern was co-hosting with Kathie Lee Gifford and filling in for Regis [Philbin] and then Howard gets interviewed and nobody says, ‘Hey, Howard, what you’ve said with Kathie Lee Gifford for all these years, how’s that going to go?'” Dukes said. “No one would ask that? What are we doing?”